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A beautifully framed original historic sepia-toned cabinet card photograph of renowned Navajo silversmith, "Slender-Maker-of-Silver" in a hand-painted Arizona folk art wood frame dated 1932
This piece may not be quite as artistic as his amazing historic jewelry pieces, but it’s definitely in the ballpark
and it certainly does him and his legacy the appropriate artistic honor and credit in our view.
Slender-Maker-of-Silver or “Besh-Lakai-Ilhini” (1831-1915) is widely considered to be the greatest Navajo silversmith in history. He is a legendary figure who was immortalized around 1885 in this rare, sepia-toned cabinet card photograph taken by the great American photographer, Ben Wittick which has been most beautifully framed in a 1932 hand-painted wood frame made by an unknown craftsman in the small Southwestern ranching community of Winkelman, Arizona, some
75 miles south of Phoenix. This extraordinary photograph was taken in 1885 by the great historic American photographer, Ben Wittick (1845-1903) who achieved great renown for his powerful, poignant photographs of the American frontier and of many various native Americans. The original photographic image was printed here on this original sepia-toned cabinet card by Oswald Brothers of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Above center, an extraordinary historic Navajo silver “Squash Blossom” style necklace by Slender-Maker-of-Silver, c. 1885.
Photo source and © The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
The historic continuity of 19th and 20th Century Navajo silversmithing was handed down from Slender-Maker-of-Silver (1831-1915)
at left to his son, Fred Peshlakai (1896-1974) at center and then in turn to Peshlakai’s student, Kenneth Begay (1913-1977) at right.
Center photo source and © Chicago History Museum. Right photo source and © Arizona Republic.
The frame is a beautiful work of American Folk Art in its own right, finely and elaborately painted with stylized native American style designs in a pleasing, rich and distinctive Southwestern style color palette of turquoise blue, green, yellow, red and black all against a medium reddish-brown wood background. The frame is hand inscribed and dated “12/17/32, Winkelman, Arizona, 1932” at the bottom.
Overall, this is a strikingly historic and appropriately artistic presentation of an extraordinary Navajo jewelry artist completely befitting his enduring significance. Not only did Slender Maker create a legacy of his own extraordinary jewelry pieces, he also very importantly trained his son, the great Fred Peshlakai (1896-1974) to further carry on his legacy. Peshlakai, in turn, taught Kenneth Begay (1913-1977) cementing three generations of Slender-Maker-of-Silver’s legacy at the pinnacle of Navajo silversmithing as shown above.
The photo cabinet card itself measures 6 1/2" in height and 4" in width (sight size) and the framed dimensions of the
entire piece are 13” in height, 10 3/8" in width and 3/4" in depth. The photograph card is in good original vintage condition with some dings and scratches and what appears to be some old glue residue. The hand-painted wooden folk art frame is
in extremely good condition with a soft original patina which nicely shows its near century of age. The photo card has been recently and archivally matted to the highest conservation standards and framed under TruVue Museum Conservation glass by Goldleaf Framemakers of Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe’s finest art framers.
This framed piece is an exceptional historic and artistic presentation of one of Native America’s
most important and accomplished artists and a beautiful art object to behold in its own right.
Price $1,450
